


mending the past as if mending clothes

by angeldescendant



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, M/M, Soft Ending, With a dash of light drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-26
Updated: 2018-11-26
Packaged: 2019-08-29 23:11:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16753264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angeldescendant/pseuds/angeldescendant
Summary: Ash and Eiji decide to settle things in a compliment battle.





	mending the past as if mending clothes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [balrock](https://archiveofourown.org/users/balrock/gifts).



> Happens somewhere before Arthur battles Ash and the emotional roller coaster just went off the rails.

It happened on a whim. Also, because Ash was a pure competitor and loved a good challenge.

 

Eiji would recall differently. Ash was just stubborn, he’d say. He refused to eat his fish.

 

“You’re only good insulting people,” he added, blowing a raspberry at Ash, who was still stirring from sleep as he ignored the rest and added the noodles on rice, further enraging Eiji. “You bad at everything else!” Sans geopolitics, computers, gunslinging, full-contact combat, and some. “Now eat your food because other children are hungry!”

 

“Stop acting like my mom. That apron doesn’t even look good on you!”

 

Alex turned to Bones and Kong then. “You’re thinking what I’m thinking?”

 

The two shrugged. “Domestic life has its downs. That’s why we exist.”

 

* * *

 

It was Alex who had the balls to lay out his plan two minutes later after another round of invectives and colourful euphemisms for the hotdog being sold outside. “Instead of slurs, why not compliment each other instead?”

 

Both, in the heat of their argument about Ash hogging the Times for the nth time looked with seething eyes. “What?”

 

Kong and Bones were quaking in their dog-eared shoes as they hid behind Alex. “A compliment battle. Whoever wins gets to be the boss for one day.”

 

Ash and Eiji looked at each other intently, not bothering to break eye contact. Ash’s men can only slap their heads because these two were surprisingly bone-headed during the moments it shouldn’t count. “You’re on.”

 

Kong and Bones then decided that their battleground would be the sitting room. Both of them were stationed on the two ends of the room, the table filled with food between them.

 

“I won’t be eating your smelly food the third time,” Ash folded his arms.

 

“We’ll see about that,” Eiji folded his sleeves.

 

Alex was secretly enjoying this and wished Skip and Shorter were there. “Ok, remember the rules: No pick-up lines, physical contact, no cusses, and the winner takes all. Eiji goes first.”

 

“You have beautiful long blonde eyelashes,” Eiji said quickly. “Even models could kill to have them.”

 

“Aww c’mon _onii-chan_ , you’re not even trying,” Ash guffawed as his eyes glinted dangerously. “Your body is to die for. Your abs for example, hot damn-“

 

“You were peeking when I’m changing! I told you not to!” Eiji’s cheeks were flushed in anger and embarrassment.

 

“Hey judges, he’s going off-topic,” Ash pointed out, grinning at Eiji’s hapless bumbling yet again. “Athlete bodies are fucking juicy. Like good fried chicken. Itadakimasu-”

 

“We-Well- Your shooting skills are unmatched!” Eiji fired back.

 

Ash laughed loudly. “You can do better than that, _onii-chan_. Your cooking skills were enough for my men to shun hotdogs and fries. If the snake tastes your shit, he might want to take you away instead of yours truly.”

 

“Well, I like it here! You make me feel like I am needed and loved!”

 

It was the first time that Ash lost the merciless glint in his eyes. His mouth became smaller and his cheeks started to colour pink.

 

“Yay!” Eiji raised his arms. “I win-“

 

“Oh no you don’t!” Ash still hadn’t recovered from Eiji’s strong statement and was searching for words to spew. The rest were biting their nails and wished for it to end. Their food was getting cold. “Your hair reminds me of a fluffy alpaca’s when I first met you. Made me want to pull it to check how soft it was-“

 

“Uhm… well, your jawline’s enough to cut avocadoes for your salad!” Eiji rebutted. “All planes and angles... defies mathematical convention-“

 

Ash opened his mouth but closed it again when he sees Alex and the rest about to concede. “Have I told you guys about Eiji’s massages-“

 

“You son of a-“

 

“Come on, say it I dare you!” Ash smiled, knowing he was the one gaining momentum this time. “Just makes me want to cry out-“

 

“Stop it, Ash- Fu- You’re reminding me of those awful videos-“

 

But Ash kept on making moaning like the expert fucker he was, making Eiji flare up as Ash’s men covered their own ears.

 

“How are you gonna respond, Eiji? Really like how you do my shoulders, can’t help but say-“

 

“Stop it! Stop it Ash!”

 

“Raising the flag now, Eiji?”

 

“Never!” Eiji then began to spew louder in another dialect.

 

“That’s cheating, Ei-chan. No cursing in Japanese,” Ash drawled. “Come on then, bring it, my cute, sweet alpaca big brother.”

 

“I-“ Eiji gulped as Ash grinned, coolly confident of his victory. “I like how green your eyes are.”

 

“Please tell me you’re not talking about something else. The boudoir’s open anytime, _onii-chan_ -“

 

“Reminds me of the mountains back in Izumo, especially when the mist falls during summer…” Eiji was quieter then. “Makes me forget things I thought I shouldn’t.”

 

“So we’re going that route then, little _onii-chan_?” Ash said as Eiji broke eye contact. He was too red to rebut back. “Your big black bug eyes feel like a one-way ticket to a universe with a billion trillion stars. Like I can still go back to a past life where my brother and I were just lying on the grass at night and Mars was easy to reach. Just looking at those eyes make me remember things I thought I couldn’t.”

 

No one spoke as Ash yawned.

 

“So, I win then?” he sneered. “No more smelly food!”

 

“As if!” Eiji puffed out his chest in reply. “Your skin reminds me of marble or porcelain, like one of those statues in the metropolitan museum we visited… the incomplete and broken ones too.”

 

“Really, well I like how creamy your skin looks. Mine’s just pale like I’m a dead man walking or something…”

 

“I like how golden your hair is, like the rice fields during dawn!” Eiji shot back. “One stroke is enough to make me feel I’m home!”

 

“Well, you are home to me!” Ash was now flushing hard. “Makes me feel like I don’t have to pretend to be anything I’m not!”

 

“Well, you make me feel like I am capable of doing the extraordinary!” Eiji said in a much louder voice. “That I am not weak, or never enough, or a disappointment… That I’m taller than the rest!”

 

“Well, you are!” Ash conceded. “You made me believe that there’s some good in this shithole, and it’s worth every goddamn bullet I pull!”

 

“No…” Eiji blinked rapidly. “You made me hate myself a little less.”

 

“Well, you made me see things beyond myself, that there’s another unexpected future that Derrida keeps talking about! Something I never thought I’d be able to see. Where the sun is rising, and someone is watching it rise with me.”

“Who’s Derrida?” Eiji asked.

 

“How dare you don’t know Derrida?” Ash thundered.

 

“We-Well, how dare you don’t know City Hunter?”

 

“What the fuck Eiji… _fine,_ I’ll read those Shonen Monday magazines if you read Foucault and Derrida-“

 

“It’s Shonen Sunday!”

 

Ash then scratched his nose. “Wait, where were we?”

 

Eiji tittered then. “Let’s stop fighting. You win, okay, you deserve all the praise in the world-“

 

“Let me tell you something about how people should value you for simply existing-“

 

Alex and the rest were laughing as they animatedly narrated the aftermath to Skipper and Shorter back in Queens at the main cemetery just after sundown. Ash decided to take Eiji to a boat ride in Staten Island, finishing his meal before they left.

 

“T’was supposed to be a draw, but the clear winner was Eiji. Just didn’t want the Boss to lose his pride,” Alex scratched his nose as all of them laid down on the grass. Skip’s small headstone was just beside Shorter’s black marbled one. “Didn’t think the Boss can turn red like that…”

 

“You could’ve gotten tips on how to massage the boss, Skip,” Bones added.

 

“Wish you were there watching them go at each other like that,” Kong agreed.

 

All of them then stood up and patted the dirt off their pants.

 

“We’re gonna tell Griff next,” Alex said. The three then gave them a quick salute. “Be seeing you later. Pretty sure there are a ton more things to tell you guys next time. It will be Halloween soon.”

 

“Thank god you're just here,” Kong laughed.

 

“Keep watching over them, alright?” Bones said. “The boss is happier now. Have to make sure it’ll last.”

 

They kept walking. Somehow, the air that late October dusk didn’t seem as cold.

 

**Author's Note:**

> From Jacques Derrida: There is a future which is predictable, programmed, scheduled, foreseeable. But there is a future, l'avenir (to come) which refers to someone who comes whose arrival is totally unexpected. For me, that is the real future. That which is totally unpredictable. The Other who comes without my being able to anticipate their arrival. So if there is a real future, beyond the other known future, it is l'avenir in that it is the coming of the Other when I am completely unable to foresee their arrival.
> 
> What I loved the most about Asheiji is how their guards can easily crumble when they reveal their weary and broken selves. Thank you for reading. 
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/angeldescndnt) and [tumblr](https://treesha-san.tumblr.com/)


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